This week, Answer Fella calls up fine-dining establishments on different levels of the snooty scale for their take on formality vs. comfort

When a restaurant has a jackets-required policy, may I remove my sport coat to eat or must I wear it the whole time?

The answer varies by establishment. At Chicago's posh Spiaggia, says dining-room manager Chad Bertelsman, "If somebody takes his jacket off, I will politely say, 'We do require gentlemen to wear jackets in the dining room.' " But Charles Masson, the owner of New York City's tony La Grenouille, allows "some leniency if they are warm, although the room is comfortably air-conditioned." And at the Jockey Club in Washington, D. C., maître d' Martin Garbisu tells AF that if a diner doffs his jacket, "We kind of put a blind eye to it."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

The place you want to avoid, Gomer, is Le Cirque, New York City's premier snobhouse, where the management insists on "formal attire" whether you're standing, sitting, or floating on a cloud of culinary ecstasy. Removing one's jacket in the dining room "is simply not allowed," and one suspects they may have a Bush-era soupboarding memo to back them up.